Raptors injury woes continue as Carroll goes down

The Raptors are going to be scrambling the rest of the way to paper over the loss of Lowry. And now Carroll is out with a turned ankle.

The Toronto Raptors have been battling injuries all season. The most serious is the right wrist damage suffered by Kyle Lowry, who we won’t see on the court until close to playoff time. However, Patrick Patterson (knee) and DeMar DeRozan (ankle) have missed significant time. DeMarre Carroll suffered an ankle sprain last night against Milwaukee. He’s listed as “day to day”, which may mean he’s back against Miami on Wednesday, or he might be out for two weeks. The prognosis is unknowable.

Jared Sullinger’s tenure as a Raptor was all but destroyed due to a broken bone in his foot. He was a salary-equivalency throw-in to the trade with Phoenix which brought P. J. Tucker back to Toronto, and has been waived by the Suns. Injuries can kill careers.

Raptors’ bad fortune

I wanted to know whether the Raptors’ luck has been particularly bad compared to other NBA teams, so I hopped over to the useful www.mangameslost.com site and found this table. While the table’s data ends in late February, it certainly provides more than sufficient proof to support the premise that Toronto has indeed been snake-bitten.

The Raptors were fourth in man-games lost to February 26th, and will surely climb higher with Lowry’s enforced absence. A few clicks indicates that our man-games lost have not been to primary players. Our team ranks 15th in a synthetic stat called Lost-VORP, which in essence means our injuries haven’t been as devastating as those suffered by the Clippers (who lost Chris Paul), or Utah (George Hill). This stat also will look worse for us at March month-end when Lowry’s lost time is factored in.

Paging the Commissioner’s Office

I wish there was more the NBA could do about injuries. Fatigue is certainly a culprit. While there are fewer four-games-in-five-nights nightmares, the game is damaged by overcrowded schedules. Atlanta has five games next week, which is totally unreasonable.

Should the league create a maximum minutes per player per month rule? How about an automatic Flagrant-1 for an foul committed on an easy lay-up or dunk? I’m tired of hearing about how real men don’t allow uncontested buckets. Let’s move to an ethic that frowns upon hurting players in the open who have left their feet to score.

Helmets weren’t mandatory for hockey players for many years, until the concussions piled up. Maybe basketball players need to be forced to wear ankle or knee protection.

I make no pretense to having all of the ideas about injury prevention, or even a decent number of them; I’m just spitballin’. What do you think, Rapture Nation? How can the NBA reduce lost time to its most valuable (indeed its only) asset, the players? Comments, please.